Our First Newsletter!
Hello and welcome to the first Telve di sopra Vineyard newsletter! It’s been a long time in the making as the software to create this newsletter was purchased over a year ago and now we are finally finding time to use it.
Thank you so much for signing up, we will do our best to keep you updated on the events and workings here at the vineyard located in the Salish Sea. We hope to cover going-ons in the vineyard, winery, and tasting room construction updates as well as spotlighting the gorgeous local landscape and wild life. The very tip of the north Kitsap Peninsula is a beautiful place with considerable wild life such as bears, otters, mountain lions, hawks, eagles, vultures, and more.
A Brief History
First things first, where did we get the name? Telve di sopra is Italian and it’s where my Nonna e Nonno (Grandma and Grandpa) are from in Italy. It’s a town in the northern Alto Adige on the slopes of Alpes. Di sopra or da sopra means “from above” and below is a valley that is in walking distance where they grow Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Müller Thurgau, and many other cool climate wine grapes, so it’s a very similar climate to the Puget Sound AVA.
It’s been an interesting year with the late start but really hot and dry spring, the driest May on record! This helps the vine ripen evenly and hopefully develop good phenolics and flavors at the end. Unfortunately, we experienced a drought at the end of the season last year which resulted in a very low number of flowers this year, not to mention that flowering started in the Pinot Noir on June 12th which was then followed by 10 days of rain and cloudy cool weather. This resulted in about 15% of the flowers turning brown and falling of vines. Farming is fun!
We’re now putting on nets to keep the birds away, without the nets we would loose 100% of the grapes, thanks to some guy that thought it would be nice to bring starlings to New York’s central park. Because of him I need to spend a couple of months a year putting on and taking off nets 🙂
Not sure where raccoons came from, but I also need to put up an electric fence around each vineyard block or we will again lose most of our grapes.
We should get our fist crop of Sauvignon Blanc this year, and the because of the hot and dry spring the Riesling is looking awesome too. The Marquette is somewhat early this year as by the end of August we are not seeing any green berries. The Siegerrebe and Chardonnay are looking good, however the Pinot Noir seems to be tracking with last years vintage. Things will get exciting as harvest approaches!
We’ve been cleaning tanks and picking bins, cleaning the floor drain, and putting stuff away. We still need to fix our destemmer that broke last year, it blew a belt which caused the thermal switches for both the cage/paddle assembly motor and feed auger motor to open. After resetting the switches and checking all the fuses, the new $13k machine still won’t start.
Wineries are fun!
Latest Releases:
- 2021 Estate Marquette – sold out!
- 2021 Malbec from Rattlesnake Hills AVA 25% new oak
- 2021 Mourvèdre from Rattlesnake Hills AVA 33% new oak
- 2021 Estate Pinot Noir – lasting Strawberry-> red raspberry -> cranberry notes. Natural primary and secondary fermentation. Medium acid, Neutral Oak.
The construction was completed in July, but we didn’t get the Health Department involved until then. Oops! Now I have to replace the septic holding tank with a septic system and drain field. And to rub more salt in it, we also have to add 5 sinks to the design, a mop sink, handwashing sink, prep sink, dump sink for wine, and a three compartment sink for washing dishes. Good thing we’ve already poured that concrete slab! We have the new septic design in the permitting process and we’re starting on the revisions to the construction drawings to have a room with all the necessary sinks added. Time will tell…
We’ve started to see sightings of Cooper’s Hawks which we’re very excited about. These are smart birds that know how to get under the nets and eat any other birds that get caught or find their way under as well. The hawks also know now to get out from under the nets too. I would pay them money if they had opposable thumbs. There’s also lots of evidence of bears around. The turkey vultures have moved on as they migrate in the spring and summer months. Every night the coyotes sing their songs of love, and thankfully the eagles haven’t tried to eat our vineyard corgi Zoebo.
End of the Day…
Again thanks for signing up for the newsletter. We’re really excited to share our story with you as we take this “living the wine dream” journey together. We will try to not make it a whining wine newsletter, I promise!
Take Care!!!
